Random Musings

That was the sound of February passing by. In the blink of an eye. I didn’t write anything on this journal, not because I had nothing to write, but because I was lazy/busy. There was too much to do.. work and school, and plucking pigeons. I just tossed the pigeons in there to wake you up. It’s all about Writing with Power™.

The snow is finally receding. It was fun while it lasted—I learnt how to snowboard. Of course, I’m still falling down, but I now it’s just a matter of time. I get the board now, and now I have to make it mine. Besides that, what else is up? Hmm, nothing much at all. Life is quite placid, with no eddies or swirls. There was some brief unpleasantness with some friends of mine, but that is over now, and they are only acquaintances. Sometimes, you just have to walk away, especially when you’re getting taken for a ride. (But be careful, cause if you’re being taken for a ride, and you ry to walk, it can be painful when you hit the ground.. talk about mixed metaphors. On the other hand, I did make another friend, and I’m more sure that this time we’re going to stay friends. So it’s all in a day’s work

Speaking of work, it’s time to start looking. My goal is to be able to snowboard down a black diamond, and for that, I have to be where the snow is. So, gotta get a job here. It’s not hard, and it’s not easy, it just is.

Anyway, it’s Saturday night, and you know what that means! It means it’s time to go.

The air is like something out of a George R.R. Martin book. Now I know why all the great fantasy authors are from cold, cold places. When it’s this cold outside, it fires the imagination, and you can almost see dragons and battle scarred men walking the frozen wastelands through the mists of your breath.

This new year, I decided to change many many things. Alas for new year resolutions. Though I am happy to report that I have managed to change some things. I have wrinkles on my forehead now.. a sure sign that I’m (much) closer to 30 than I am to 20. I knew that, of course, but it’s still something that comes home when I look in the mirror. I begin to understand why people like to cling to when the sky was blue and the skin was flawless. I guess I’m thankful I’m a guy; it’s easier for us, and hey, apparently guys look better as they grow older. I need all the help I can get!

The year looms ahead of me. Unlike most years, this one fills me with some apprehension. I wonder if it’s going to be like this from now on. I’m going to be travelling again this year, to places I’ve never been before. Meeting new people, eating new food, breathing new air. All of that.

Must say though, life is never boring. Every time I start getting slightly bored, events conspire to keep me on my toes. Twinkle-toes, they call me (only when they’re inebriated, you know I do not dance).

Here’s to an interesting 2011. I know when the Chinese say “May you live in interesting times”, they don’t quite mean it the way you think they do, but pooh! to them, say I, and continue to live in interesting times.

I shall step out presently, and brave the elements. Watch my breath freeze as it leaves my mouth. Hear the icicles falling down. Feel my sense of smell get destroyed as millions of tiny ice particles collide in my nose..

Brrrrrr….

The subject of this post is my oh-so-clever allusion to finally buying a camera. I’ve wanted to buy one for a long time, but I wanted a camera with manual controls. When I was a kid, I used to read the photography magazines, and I wished I could have had a camera then, but it was an expensive hobby in the days of film. Now, of course, things are much easier. I didn’t buy a DSLR for the simple reason that those are big and heavy. Also, I want to learn as much as I can before I spend on that.

So, what did I buy? I bought a Panasonic Lumix G2. This is based on the Micro Four-Thirds system, and has interchangeable lenses. If you want to see what I’ve been doing with the camera, go here:

My Flckr Photostream

I’m learning right now, so the pictures aren’t exactly what Ansel Adams would have shot. Still, it’s great fun.

2010 is almost over. It’s going to be my very first white christmas. I’ve never seen snow before, except in movies and far away in the distance. Now, though, it’s snowing and it’s very pretty. It’s also messy, slippery, dirty, cold and painful, but hey, we can suffer for our art, yes?

This year brought many changes. My grandmother passed away, and I wasn’t there. Words cannot express what she meant to me. And that pales before what she meant to my mother. It had to happen sometime, but that’s not much consolation. My lovely dog Daisy passed on as well. Those of you who know me know exactly what these two events did to me.

Life goes on, however, and I’m far away trying to live up to my grandmother’s last words to me. She told me to study hard, and I’m trying. I fall off the wagon sometimes, but on the whole, I manage to keep on it. My grades are up, and considering I haven’t studied in years and years I’m sorta pleased. Not too pleased though, I could be doing better. B-School is many things, but more than anything else, it is a place that really gives you as much as you put it. I’ve made some friends, even though we sound like a joke (An Indian, a Mexican, and an American walk into a bar..).

Some other stuff has happened, not all of which I am going to talk about. Tch tch, don’t look so disappointed, you can’t expect me to forget that Google is going to zap these words to the great unwashed masses (not YOU, of course) post haste.

What I can talk about is getting older! I’ve detected the beginnings of lines on my forehead. And I have some gray hair now. I refuse to be fat though, even though American food makes it very easy. Between the gym, home-cooking, and keeping an eagle eye on my weight, I’ve managed to keep it exactly at what it was back home. Can I keep this going? Hmmm, I’m certainly going to try.. I have a plan. A well thought out stratagem to go from where I am to where I want to be. Pitfalls abound, but I’m going to try to get across all of them.

I’m going to cook some dinner and watch Breakfast at Tiffany’s now. I hope you have a wonderful holiday as well. If you’re someone I know and haven’t heard from in ages, write to me! It’d be nice to catch up.

Newbury Street in Boston is the place to go when you want to shop. It has all the outlets, and naturally, they are all very expensive. Not the kind of place I would naturally gravitate to.

Last evening, though, I was walking down Newbury, on my way back home from a meeting. I was keeping my eyes straight ahead, avoiding temptation. Unfortunately, straight ahead I saw a sign: Raven Secondhand Books. I didn’t know I was going to go there, but as I passed, my feet sort of naturally just turned and took me into that store.

And I’m glad I listened to my feet. The place was fantastic! Not as good as Blossoms, in Bangalore (I miss that!), but I found a lovely set of the Lord of the Rings. Hardcover, large fold out maps in color, beautiful type, pristine condition. And for $20! That’s cheap by Indian standards!

So now I feel at home in Boston/Cambridge.

I’m not going to write too much on this public site about this, but I did want to write a little.

My grandmother passed away two days ago. Her passing marks the end of an era; she was a colossal presence in our family and a rock in times of trouble. She was always graceful and thought the very best of everyone. She was also very welcoming; my friends knew that there would always be food to eat at my place, no matter how many of them turned up, or at what time.

I am far away from home, in a distant land. I wish I could be there with everyone right now, but that’s not the right thing to do, and Nanisa knew that. Mom told her of my acing an exam the day before, and she was very pleased, and told me to study. Sigh, the world is going to be just a little darker.

On the other hand, I did have a fantastic childhood, and I have so many beautiful memories of her. Maybe someday I will tell stories of my grandmother to some other little people. I only wish I can be a hundredth of how fantastic she was.

I could write thousands of words, but you are not interested in my grief, and rightly so. Look forward and think of sunny days with lovely blue skies.

I will miss her telling me to be careful when I climbed high walls and stood on tiny ledges to get my kites back.

Growing up is never as much fun as it seems when you’re a kid.

and life meanders on. I thought things were looking up, but sigh, it’s deja vu all over again.

Refusing to surrender to melancholy, however, is a hallmark of the new age man. As an aside, I’ve always wondered what the heck that term “new-age” really means. I mean, is it like the opposite of “old-age” or something? So a puppy would be a new-age dog? Or a MacBook Air a new-age Mac?

Whatever.

I think of writing everyday, but these damn bunnies just don’t let me do anything. Dust-bunnies, people.. what were you thinking?

Working hard is no fun. Sometimes it is, but I keep getting the feeling that I’m going to wonder where the years went. You can’t keep putting things off. At some point, you really do have to go sky-diving and forget about the exams and the stress and the fact that 11000 miles really was too much to handle.

So, who’s coming jumping out of aeroplanes?

It was very windy today. Windy enough to blow over a Ducati. And that’s windy.

It’s been an interesting month. I haven’t been able to write much because I’ve been snowed under with work. And we’ve just barely begun.

We had a career services class where we were told that us MBA students should have a blog. Where we talk about our strengths, but oh never our weaknesses. We need to market ourselves, after all. Make sure potential recruiters see a carefully vetted profile of ourselves.

Great plan, yeah.

Small hitch, though. I’ve been writing here for five years now. So I’m just going to keep on doing that. If you’re a potential recruiter, please note that I have everything you’re looking for. Call me.

With that little plug out of the way, let us continue.

Yeah, so the month. It’s been crazy fun. I’ve been walking around places that I’d only read about. I take the subway to school everyday, and I don’t mind admitting that I’m still secretly thrilled that I cross both the Harvard and MIT stations everyday.

I’m actually on an MIT organizing committee for this big entrepreneurship thing called the MIT 100K. MIT 100K Website. Go check it out, it’s pretty cool.

School itself is fun too. I’ve been (much to my surprise) enjoying Accounts and Finance. It’s great to interact with people from so many different countries too, I learn something new everyday. There are many nice people, and some not so nice people. Course, you just avoid the not-so-nice ones.

Let’s forget about school though. I can’t really go into detail, and I don’t want to do that either. I’d rather talk about waking up in the mornings and walking to the T station. I walk east, so I have the sun in my eyes when I walk. The streets are not very full at that hour. The weather is odd: cold one day, warm the next. Plays havoc with the sinuses, I can tell you.

And yes, I bought a Kindle. It’s a sweet little device. I’ve already got 2000 books loaded up on it, so I am never out of reading. Even though I don’t have the time, I MAKE the damn time. Yes, I like to read. Seriously though, it is a very nice thing. I’ve already read four books on it, and it really does fade away into the background. You just feel like you’re reading. A book.

Walking around is when I feel nice. Studying is fine, and I’m doing alright, but it’s just nice to be young and exploring new cities. When my fifty year old self reads this, he’s going to remember and smile.

Does that mean I’m going to keep on writing here for twenty more years?

UPDATE-

I am happy to state they TD Bank actually did follow through and fix this. Within two hours of emailing them, they called me back and did the following:

This is in order of importance to me.

1. Sincerely apologized
2. Set up a new account
3. Established a line of credit so that I can buy things and generally just pretend my account is open.
4. Gave me $25 credit as a gift.

I wish other companies responded like this. Well done! TD Bank is back on my recommended list.

I’m keeping the story up anyway, but please remember, they fixed it. And that’s what’s important.
——————–
America’s most convenient bank??

I opened an account with TD Bank, in Cambridge, MA. on Sunday, the 29th of August 2010.

At the time of opening my account (at the branch in Alewife, Cambridge), I was told to give various forms of ID. Since I am an international student, I provided the following:

1. Passport with current US Visa.
2. I-20 Form with my School’s name on it.
3. Address in the US
4. US phone number

I was told by the representative there, that that was it, and that I didn’t need anything else.

I then got funds transferred into my account from my bank in India. I received a few thousand dollars.

Four days after I opened my account, i.e on the 2nd of September 2010, I got a call from the chap who’d opened, who said that he forgot to make me sign a W-8 form, and that I needed to do that.

On the 8th of September, four business days after that call, my account was closed or suspended.

On the 9th of September, five business days after I got the call, I went down to your bank and resigned all the forms. The lady there was very helpful, and she assured me that the account would be reopened by today, and I would have access to all my money. She even gave me a $25 gift card, and generally did a good job (or so it seemed at the time)

This morning, I called the bank to check. I was told now that my account would only be reactivated by Tuesday, the 14th of September.

I called Customer Care. They told me that the account has been closed, and the check has been mailed to me, and would reach me by Tuesday. Hopefully. “It’s in the mail”

She further stated that the bank said that they had been trying to get in touch with me for “over a month”.

Let me state for clarity:

1. I got ONE phone call. No emails, no reminders, no mention that the account would be closed in four days.

2. It was NOT my fault. I am not supposed to know what documents I need to sign. That’s the bank’s job, right? To tell me what to sign?

3. I entered the USA on the 18th of August. I have that date stamped in my passport For the bank to say that they have been trying to get in touch with me for over a month is just a plain and simple lie. They record calls, right? So do I.

4. Why do I get told three different things? What’s true? Or am I supposed to just wait and pray that things work?

I am very disappointed with my experience with TD Bank. Sure, mistakes happen, but for them to unilaterally close my account with NO warning, and leave me stranded with no money, no way to get MY money from them, and generally just say, too bad, nothing we can do about it; that’s just sad.

I don’t want to sound like an jerk. Put yourself in my shoes though, and think about how you’d feel. You’re in a new country, and your bank (America’s most convenient!) closes your account without informing you (despite having your email and your phone), and now you have no money for at least five days, maybe more. And for no fault of yours. Does that sound fair to you? Is this a bank you’d want to do business with?

Well, they’ve lost my business, but I write this so that you guys now what’s what, and to avoid TD Bank like the plague.

Today was a great day. A fantastic day. I will write this on my blog to commemorate the occasion. Mark this day well. Mark it very well.

Got my feet up on the coffee table. It’s that time of the year in Delhi when it’s sweltering. And I have little to do, so I sit with my feet up on the coffee table, listening to Greenday singing ditties about the last of the american girls, or something like that.

The last few months have been all interesting. Lots of paperwork to complete, lots of things to get through. Now, though, it’s all done. I’m flying in a month to Logan Airport, Boston. Yup, Boston, the home of the bean and the cod. Where the Lowells speak only to the Cabots. And the Cabots speak only to God. Ah, the old feudal system. Just like home, then.

I’m going there to attempt to get an MBA. I know, I know, long time readers of this journal are currently wide-eyed. I’m full of surprises, I am. You can send incredulous emails to the usual address.

So it’s another transitory month. My expectation levels are about at par with what they were when I went to law school, and from law school to Bangalore. And I had a nice time at both places, so this should be alright as well. Naturally, I’m going to freeze to bits, but on the bright side, I can make a snowman!

However, there’s still some time before I leave. I’m spending that month in peaceful contemplation, mostly. The World Cup is over (SPAAAAAAIN), so there’s a large, football shaped, void in my life now.

I have decided to be less anti social on Facebook now. I’ve actually opened my wall for comments! and even allowed people to see where I’ve worked. I still have only 66 friends though. And no, there are no scandalous pictures of me. Not just aren’t there any on Facebook, they just don’t exist. I don’t do scandalous things.

I’ll give you a minute to stop smirking nastily.

Done? Good.

So, moving on, where are we now? Ah yes, if you’re expecting explanations for the previous few cryptic posts, forget about it. Those are sentences stripped of context, sadly alone, with no story attached to them.

If there’s anyone in Delhi who’s reading this and wants to hang out before I’m off, email me. I’m going to go and read about octopuses now.